It was probably inappropriate.

To suddenly realise, mid chaos, that my little brother is going to kill me.

That's what walking in silence does to a person. Allows the full weight of what they have done to hit them like a ton of bricks.

Though I'm usually pretty optimistic about these sorts of things...

But no.

Devin is going to kill me.

For everything I had put him and the rest of my family through, I would die a slow, painful death.

And just like that... I suddenly didn't mind the idea of being stuck down here, to live out the rest of my days as a starved lab monster.

I would settle down, find a nice lab monster husband, have lab monster babies and grandbabies, watching them grow until the day I peacefully passed away, dozing in my rocking chair.

Yea.

That would be nice.

"Are we there yet." I near screeched, clutching my head in distress."I'm being driven mad by hunger."

"Don't make me turn this car around," Alex growled from up ahead.

It had taken a long while, and at one point, he had barely been able to move from the pain... But true to Vain's prediction, Alex had recovered his strength the further we travelled.

Eventually, he had asked to be put down with a polite wack to the head.

Needless to say, Vain felt far less charitable after that, thus ended Alex's free ride.

Good for him.

Still clutching my head, I raised an eyebrow at the little smartass.

"What car-?"

"You heard him, Maddison," Vain said. "We'll get there when we get there. Be patient. More importantly, be quiet."

Ganging up on me, eh?

I crossed my arms with a pout.

"But Nigel's annoying me. "

Both Vain and Alex looked at Nigel to judge the truth of this statement.

"I'm afraid Breathing is just something you will have to learn to tolerate Maddison."

Pffft. Says who?

I looked back up at the boy carrying my cage. Nigel blinked back at me, smiling apologetically for thwarting my lies with his innocence.

Damn.

"... I'm bored."

As Vain sighed, Alex took a turn.

With an unnatural leap, the small child cleared the first damaged steps of a new set of stairs.

The red-head turned back with a smug look, as us non-superhumans were faced with the challenge of getting over the pulverised mess of concrete.

Except me, of course. I got to ride in the cage, like a princess.

A captured princess, but still, pretty sure I count as royalty.

Though I wasn't the only one.

Smiling like the cat with the canary, Alex offered a hand down to help Vain over the broken rubble.

It was easy to understand why he had made the gesture. The chunk taken out of the stairway was sizeable... And Vain wasn't the most athletic of sorts.

Even I would have looked like an idiot in the process of trying to get over that crap...

Vain raised an eyebrow, but when Alex only twitched his fingers encouragingly, he took the small hand with a resigned sigh.

Despite his size, Alex made short work of pulling the albino up, helping Vain balance as he climbed.

Geez, if Alex was already this strong Alan had to be close by.

As soon as he was up, Vain dropped the hand and stepped back, face calmly blank.

Alex rolled his eyes before offering the same helping hand down to Nigel.

Good thing too. The last thing we need was Nigel falling, breaking his head open and dropping me in the process.

Nigel excepted Alex's help enthusiastically, seemingly impressed with the show of strength. Since Nigel actually had a sense of balance, our climb went even smoother than Vain's.

"We could play I-spy," Nigel suggested light-heartedly as we resumed walking.

I spy.

I sent him a look.

Of all the stupid, childish...

"... Only if I can go first."

Nigel's smile brightened, even as our more mature company groaned.

"Kay. "

"I spy with my little eye... Something beginning with V. "

"Vain."

"Right," I admitted grudgingly.

Nigel hummed happily, tilting his head back to think. "I spy, Something beginning with A. "

"... Alex. "

" Yep."

"I spy... "

"Cage." Nigel interrupts.

I glance at him in surprise.

His smile was still in place, friendly as ever... But a cunning glimmer had entered his eye.

He had been right, and he knew it.

.... Playing the worm just to reveal himself as the snake...

My eyes narrowed.

The gauntlet had been thrown.

And I always accepted a challenge.

I began calling letters, rapid-fire.

"W." "Wall. "

"R. " Rubble. "

"S." "Stairs. "

"F!" "Fluorescent Light."

We fell into silence.

There wasn't anything in our barren surroundings left to spy.

"Well, looks like we've exhausted this possibility."

"I agree. "

...

"Vaaaaain! "

The pale boy stopped short, took a deep breath, then turned to us, pulling his gun out.

Woe! Hold the horses!

"Is it life-threatening?" He asked politely.

I cringed.

"um... No?"

"Good." He turned away with a smile. "Let's keep it that way..."

Alex actually snickered.

Some people... Should not be given power.

Speaking of which.

"Since when have you been able to use a gun anyway," I demanded, curiosity trumping my survival instincts in a heartbeat.

Vain sighed, obviously expecting the question ever since he revealed the gun. "Alan thought it would be... wise...that I have some means of defence... "

"Defence"

.... Riiiight.

"How responsible of him."

Vain shrugged.

"If it makes you feel any better, he made sure I could use it first. He's been dragging me out into the wilderness for years for...lessons."

"...that's not legal... Is it. "

"Not even a little bit.

Heads will roll for this.

"That idiot. He's lucky you didn't shoot your own damn foot off! I'm going to open up a new packet of toothpicks as soon as I get home and shove them down his ear one by one-!"

My tirade came to a nasty end when Nigel nearly dropped my cage.

I yelped as the cage floor beneath me suddenly dropped, only to land on my butt as Nigel caught it in the next instant.

The Joker mumbled an apology as I swore angrily at him, looking nervously ahead instead of at the innocent girl he had half scared to death.

Not a second later Vain's pale fingers came into view. He glared at Nigel, saying nothing, but the way his eye twitched spoke volumes.

Nigel didn't protest as he was sternly relieved of his cage carrier duty.

As I was being transferred from one set of arms to another, I finally noticed what had caused Nigel to slip with the cage.

Alan Floid stood at the top of the stairs.

He did. Not. Look. Happy.

And that was terrifying enough in itself.

The fact that there was no cheerful smile to greet us, only a blank stare, set off all the warning alarms in my head

The last time I had seen Alan act this scary, I was bleeding out from the window he had thrown at me.

... There are worse things than Jack down here...

An angry Alan was apparently one of them.

Alex obviously agreed with that sentiment, as he stood frozen a few stairs above us, staring at his brother like he was the grim reaper.

When he did speak, the King's words were very soft.

"Guess it could have been worse. "

... Well, you're not wrong...

Alex stiffened, only to have the tension leak out of him with a pained sigh.

"Postpone the lecture, Alan. I know what I did was stupid, but we didn't have much choice at the time..."

Before he could finish Alan moved, the physically older twin crossing the space between them in an instant.

He went down to one knee.

"Enough, Alexander," Alan spoke into the small boy's shoulder, crushing his brother in a tight hug. "You made the right choice."

... Huh.

Alex stood ramrod straight, not returning the embrace right away.

"That's new. " He said faintly.

"Not as much as you might think," Alan answered softly.

"I was talking about you admitting it."

Alan laughed, squeezing even tighter.

When he spoke again, it was barely audible.

"I wouldn't survive losing you, Alex. "

"So you keep telling me."

"Don't throw your life away."

"... I wouldn't do that to you, Al." Alex finally relaxed into the hug, wrapping his arms around his brother. "... 'sides, I've got stuff I wanna do tomorrow."

"... That's new. "

Alex squeezed tighter.

"...not as much as you might think. "